Tuesday, June 08, 2010

President Obama is now talking tough on the 50-day-old oil leak and wants to know "whose ass to kick." Or at least, that's what media, which has created a distraction by insisting the president "get angry," would have to believe, taking a quote from a longer chat with NBC's Matt Lauer on the "Today"Sshow. Who actually brought up the butt-kicking first? Matt Drudge, btw, sees this as "going street," something no doubt he'd say about a white guy too, huh? We'll put what the president said into context today -- and of course talk about the latest in the spill and BP's response.

A few months ago, we talked about the video of Iraqi civilians and two Reuters employees who were killed by a helicopter attack in 2007, which was shown in a leaked, classified video on the site Wikileaks, a website which "allows whistleblowers to publicize sensitive material globally." There is now fallout from this controversial video's release, because Army Spec. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst, was arrested for disclosing the information. His contact, Adrain Lamo, a former hacker, turned him in. Was this right? Aren't whistleblowers protected? We'll get into it.

Today, 12 states are holding their primaries leading up to the midterm elections this November, including an important Democratic prmary in Arkansas for progressives, who hope to get rid of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, who is being challenged by Bill Halter. In California, a Republican primary will decide who will take on Sen. Barbara Boxer. And there's more. We'll go through a primary review today.

Guest / 3:30pm EST - A much-discussed study released this week concludes children of lesbian parents may do better than their peers -- something more to debunk radical right lies. Nanette Gartrell, one of the researchers of this study, joins us this afternoon to talk about her findings.

Guest / 4:30pm EST - Now that the repeal for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is on the right track, what do we need to do to help further the progress? How will Republicans in the Senate try to hald to stop repeal with their own amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill? Aubrey Sarvis of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network joins us this afternoon to lay out the path to repeal.

Vice President Joe Biden recently held a "beach" party at his house for senior administration officials. Also on the guest list were the reporters who are supposed to be holding these officials accountable. Glenn Greenwald brings up the question of whether this "violate journalistic ethics". Should the White House press corp be rubbing elbows with senior White House officials? We'll get into it this afternoon.

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